Inside The Storm

Chapter 10

⚠️TW for substance abuse, self harm, disordered eating, self harm, abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault, and more. Take these seriously!⚠️

July 9th, 2022

Amelia's POV:

"I'm fine!" Claire says violently pulling out of my grip, ripping my heart to pieces. I can tell she's hurting but she won't talk to me. I know she just needs time but she's acting weird. What was she doing in a storage closet?

I try to get my mind off it and give her the space she needs. I try to return to my work but I can't shake the feeling something's wrong. Screw it. I need to make sure she's ok.

I rush down the hallway and turn to reach her door. I take a breath before knocking. I knock a few times with no response.

"Claire please talk to me. Just tell me you're alright." I say still knocking. After more knocking i open the the door to reveal no one in the room. I turn my head to the open bathroom door and rush over to it. My body goes cold as I see Claire laying lifeless on the floor, her arms slit, blood pooling around her body. I scream a blood curdling, hair raising screech, sending a wave of nurses and doctors into the room.

I bend down to touch her neck, feeling for a pulse. "S-s-she has a pulse. It-t-t's thready!" I scream at the nurses running to the emergency button.

"Lift her with me." Another nurse says crouching towards Claire's body. I grab her under her arms and she grabs her legs and we carry her to her bed.

"Dress the wounds and uh." I say, not being able to make words.

"We got it from here Dr. Shepherd." An intern says as someone pulls me out of the room. I look behind to realize it's Meredith, pulling me into a hug. I turn around and burry my head into her dark blue scrubs, her arms wrapping around me gently.

Alex pushes past us, rushing to treat Claire. I take my puffy face out of Meredith's chest to see Claire laying on the bed, limp. I begin crying harder and Meredith escorts me out of the room. She leads me down a hallway and to a set of chairs in a small waiting room.

We take a seat and Mer offers her shoulder for me to lay on. I place my head down and continue crying, my mascara running down my face and into my mouth leaving a chemical taste. I reach for Meredith's hand and we interlock fingers.

"She's going to be fine Amelia." Mer says reading my mind.

"I don't know what I did wrong Mer." I say in between sobs.

"She's in a lot of pain mentally. We've all been there before and she's going to be ok." She says laying her head on mine and rubbing my back.

We sit for an hour until an intern comes to update us. "Uh Claire is fin-"

"Where's Alex?" I ask angrily.

"He had to uh he got paged I think."

"YOU THINK?! What kind of doctor are you! The incompetents in this hospital! What are we teaching these interns! You don't say "uh" while updating the family so you know nothing!"

"I'm sorry ma'am." The boy says looking down innocently.

"I'm sorry she's having a very hard day." Mer says walking away with him. "Tell me whats going on with Claire." I stay seated, burying my head in my hands as I sob.

After a few minutes Meredith comes back, luckily without the intern. "Claire's fine. He cuts were extensive but they were able to stitch her up. She did lose a lot of blood but so far she's stable." She says walking around to my seat. "Would you like to see her?" She says putting her hand out. I shake my head quickly, tears still flowing. "How bout we get you cleaned up so you don't spook Claire."

I shake my head yes and interlock fingers with her as she leads me to a bathroom. She opens the door and grabs a handful of brown paper towels and wets them under the faucet. She brings the soggy paper towels to my face and lightly dabs the mascara running down my face, off.

She soaks her hands in water and rubs my eyes, trying to bring down the puffiness. There's nothing she can do for the bright red color of my eyes so she leave it. She grabs my hand once again and leads me towards Claire's room. Once we reach her hallways my breathing hitches and tears begin to perk in my eyes.

I force my tongue to the roof of my mouth, trying to fight the tears. "It's ok Amelia." Mer says rubbing my shoulders. No it's not. Nothing about this is ok. I messed up. I royal screwed it all up. I've had her for a week and she's cut herself, passed out because she was starving herself, and attempt suicide.

"I'm fine I'm fine." I saying pushing her hand off my shoulder harshly. She looks at me concerned and I push past her. "Amelia you don't have to see her now. You can take a few minutes."

"NO MER!!! I NEED TO SEE HER NOW!!! SHES OBVIOUSLY HURTING AND IM NOT THERE FOR HER!!! SHE THINKS NO ONE CARES ABOUT HER AND I NEED TO SHOW HER I LOVE HER!!!" I scream before running into Claire's room.

A/N: I'm going on vacation rn so I hope I won't write cause that means I'm either not having a lot of fun or I'm staying up really late to finish writing. Im still driving down rn so I might write more if I feel like it.